The Hague.
She had been offered an injection of AstraZeneca, but turned it down for fear of developing blood clotting. He is now fighting for his life in a Dutch hospital, connected to assisted breathing. It is the tragic story of a covid-19 patient with whom doctors in the Netherlands demand the use of all available vaccines.
The open letter from these Dutch paramedics, accompanied by an x-ray of their patient’s lungs that leaves no one indifferent, is addressed to the acting Minister of Health, Hugo de Jonge, In a critique of the paralysis of the use of Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and of the age limitations imposed on the use of AstraZeneca.
“Today the first patient who had refused to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine was admitted to our hospital after all the commotion in the press. We feel great sorrow in his voice and despair in his eyes. He has attacked and could have been avoided.With his permission, we share his lung scanner.You do not need to be a specialist in lungs to acknowledge the devastation, nor an epidemiologist to explain the risks of not being vaccinated, ”they warned.
The Netherlands has stored 80,000 doses of Janssen since Monday awaiting a scientific recommendation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on its safety and possible relationship to six cases of unusual blood clotting in the United States. United, the only country that has already used this single-dose vaccine.
In addition, and after the EMA warned of a “possible link” of AstraZeneca with dozens of cases of thromboembolism very rare in people who received the injection, the Netherlands decided to use it only in people older than 60 years, an age group where this preparation has shown fewer cases of this adverse effect.
After the debates on AstraZeneca and the divergences shown by European countries on whether or not to continue vaccination with this preparation, 42% of those over 60 still unvaccinated in Netherlands refuse to get this vaccine, according to an I&O survey commissioned by Dutch television NOS.
The signatories of the letter published on Friday, who are employees of the Zuyderland Medical Center in the south-east of the Netherlands, have warned that “the risk of serious harm caused by covid-19 is ten times greater for people 40-year-olds and 70-fold older than 60-year-olds, than the risk of serious thrombosis damage from the vaccine.
“So far, we have cared for more than 3,000 coronavirus patients, and while (you) talk to experts about reopening society to offer perspective, we still see the tremendous consequences of this disease on a daily basis,” they lamented.
the Executive Dutch presented a plan last Tuesday to “reopen society responsibly” in the coming weeks and end the curfew from April 28, but conditioned it to control a third wave of contagion that is untied, so this promise runs the risk of not being able to keep until May.
This approach is widely criticized by those working on the front lines against covid-19. “Employees are legitimately wondering why they should continue to provide care without adequate protection, while vaccines wait in the refrigerator,” they complained.
These doctors demand that the minister “stop delaying (vaccination) and cause unrest” and reminded him that “the figures show that the benefits of mass vaccination are overwhelming and do not lie.”
“We let people choose if they want to avoid a situation like our patient’s,” they urged, asking to be made available. “AstraZeneca, Janssen or any other vaccine “and advocated, like the parliamentary majority, for” voluntary vaccination on the basis of informed consent. “
In addition, as a conclusion to their letter, they threatened to use doses of AstraZeneca they have been in the fridge at hospital staff and doctors since Monday, and warned that they no longer “have to cooperate voluntarily and consciously with preventable harm” through vaccination.